


When Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [54]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: Crowe Altius POV, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, it's my first time doing her POV so if it's terrible I'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28439319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: If someone had told Crowe a year ago that someday she'd be not only a commanding officer in the Kingsglaive but also in charge of training new recruits in how to use their magic, she would've laughed herself sick.
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [54]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 13
Kudos: 68





	When Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

**Author's Note:**

> In which Ardyn snoops around for answers to the The Enigma of Nyx Ulric, talks a bit with Crowe after she gets fed up with his snooping and confronts him, and then flounces off because he doesn't like the answer she gives him. All done from Crowe's perspective because I love her dearly and realized that I haven't done anything from her POV yet! ;D
> 
> Also, a quick shout-out to SoySalt and a couple other readers, for putting the idea of a Nyx fanclub into my head for this story! Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun with the more hilarious aspects of Nyx's sudden fame than I thought I would, it's wonderful. ;D

**When Truth is Stranger Than Fiction**

* * *

If someone had told Crowe a year ago that someday she'd be not only a commanding officer in the Kingsglaive but also in charge of training new recruits in how to use their magic, she would've laughed herself sick.

And yet here she is.

It's still surreal to her sometimes, the way that everything has shaken out; there are still some days where she wakes up and expects everything to be the way it was before, with Drautos in charge and the rest of them marching along to the beat of his drum like good little toy soldiers.

Well, all of them but Nyx; he'd always put saving lives ahead of following orders, even when it had meant endless write-ups and scathing lectures from Drautos.

She wouldn't change that for anything, though, because without Nyx being the way he is the life she's living now (the life that they're _all_ living now) would be nothing more than a distant dream in a world of ash and blood.

Hell, she wouldn't even still be _alive_ right now without Nyx, without his loyalty and heroism and that stubborn determination to _change_ things.

(It makes her chest ache, sharp and twisting with grief, to think of everything that Nyx has been through, not just in this life but in that other timeline he'd described, the one where Insomnia had burned and Nyx had burned with it, sacrificing himself for a future that he would never live to see.)

It wouldn't be overdramatic, she thinks, to say that all of Insomnia owes a great debt to Nyx, even if they don't know it, and she counts herself at the top of that list.

Which is why she views Ardyn Izunia with open suspicion when he begins lurking around the Kingsglaive headquarters. Because the ex-Chancellor seems to have a _fascination_ of some sort with Nyx and that makes Crowe bristle instinctively, because long-lost Lucis Caelum ancestor or not (and isn't that another tremendous mind-fuck all on its own) the shady bastard was only recently openly supporting Niflheim. Was only recently a _leader_ in Niflheim, and sure, apparently he's defected to Lucis for the time-being _but still_.

Nyx is Crowe's friend, her _family_ , and Izunia's sudden fixation on him unsettles her.

She's not sly or sneaky, though, has always preferred a more direct approach when something is bothering her.

So after she catches Ardyn snooping around for the third time in two days (and with no viable excuse for why, because while Ardyn has taken to occasionally dropping by to visit the Commander of the Kingsglaive, Nyx has been out of town on a mission with Cor for the last forty-eight hours), she confronts him.

"What do you want?" she asks bluntly, crossing her arms as she leans against the door frame in a blatant blocking-the-exit move (though it seems to only amuse Ardyn, if the smirk on his face is any indication).

"What makes you think I want anything at all?" Izunia asks, adopting an innocent expression that she doesn't trust for a second.

"Someone like you always wants _something_ ," she retorts, not relenting. "I won't let you hurt Nyx," she adds warningly.

" _Hurt_ him?" Ardyn looks genuinely startled for a moment before he dissolves into laughter, the smirk coming back full-force. "Oh, my dear, I assure you, I mean him no harm whatsoever. I am simply…curious."

"Curious," Crowe repeats flatly. "About Nyx."

"Yes."

She gives him the suspicious side-eye that he's earned by virtue of that simple yet frustratingly vague reply. "…Why."

"Why not?" Ardyn returns, spreading his arms in a grandiose gesture. "He's a very intriguing man, is he not?"

Crowe, who once had the dubious honor of witnessing Nyx try to stuff twelve cream puffs into his mouth at one time on a dare from Libertus barely two days after single-handedly slaughtering a horde of daemons to save a team of junior Glaives, isn't entirely sure if 'intriguing' is the right word.

_Ridiculous_ is a better fit, in her honest opinion, because as much of a hero as he is to everybody else, to her he'll always just be her smart-ass surrogate brother who pushes himself too hard.

But then again, most people don't know Nyx the way she does; they just see the impossibly skilled soldier who pulls off impossible missions, and hold him up as some sort of paragon because of it, as if he'd walked straight out of one of those epic tales of glory and adventure that they tell to small children.

(Hell, there's even a Nyx Ulric _fan club_ now, a little group of admirers that had sprung up in the wake of his battle against Drautos and grown even larger after the King's proclamation of his royal heritage; she finds it surreal and hilarious by turns, and is very much looking forward to the utterly bamboozled look that Nyx will get on his face once he finds out about it.)

Presumably Ardyn doesn't view Nyx as some sort of mythical hero, though; after all, the former Chancellor is practically a figure out of legend himself, what with how he's older than dirt and dirt's great-grandfather.

Which begs the question of why he's _really_ so interested in Nyx.

"I'm going to ask you this one more time," she says, bringing to bear the stern no-bullshit tone that she uses on particularly troublesome Glaive trainees, "and if you don't give a straight answer then gods help me I will roast your ass with the biggest fireball I can conjure. Why are you so interested in Nyx?"

Ardyn gives her a long, measuring look, then gives what seem to be a genuinely delighted grin. "I like you," he decides.

"Awesome," she says, rolling her eyes and not bothering to dial back her sarcasm. "But that's not an answer to my question." She summons a flicker of flame to one hand with a thought and holds it up in a gesture that's not _quite_ threatening but also not overly friendly. "What do you want with Nyx?"

"You're very protective of him," Ardyn notes. "Why is that?"

Crowe arches an eyebrow, not even deigning to acknowledge his attempt to sidetrack her focus. "What. Do. You. Want."

Ardyn makes a face, giving a sullen pout that is entirely out of place on a grown man's face. "Has anyone ever told you that you're absurdly relentless?" Then, when that doesn't garner any response other than a slightly larger fireball in her hand, he huffs out a short sigh. "Very well, I suppose I might as well tell you," he concedes.

She banishes the flames just as easily as she'd summoned them and leans back up against the door-frame, aiming for nonchalance. "Alright, I'm listening," she tells him.

Ardyn regards her for another moment, apparently thinking over his words. "Nyx Ulric is a bit of an enigma to me," he begins at last. "And as you can probably imagine, for someone of my age and experience, it is not often that I encounter something -or in this case, someone- that I cannot immediately gain a complete understanding of."

Crowe considers that, turning his words over in her head. "I guess I can understand that, a little. But what is is about Nyx specifically that's got you so…" She waves a hand vaguely in his direction. "You know."

Ardyn gives a shrug that would come across as careless if she couldn't see the burning curiosity in his eyes, something almost desperate in his gaze. "I want to know what is so special about Nyx Ulric," he replies, something fierce in his tone, "that he can circumvent destiny itself."

It takes Crowe a moment to process that, then she blinks. "He what now?"

Ardyn gives another smirk, this one more pained than anything. "I should not be here now," he says, bitterness leaking into his voice. "I was cursed by the gods, forsaken by Bahamut himself and betrayed by my own brother, and doomed to spend an eternity consumed by the very darkness I once sought to eradicate, at least until the gods' Chosen One grew strong enough to slay me." He shakes his head. "And yet thanks to Nyx Ulric, here I am. Not only alive, but cured of the Scourge and free to choose my own path for the first time in centuries. What is it about him, that allows him to disregard the will of not just the Lucii but the gods themselves?"

Crowe sucks in a slow, careful breath because she honestly doesn't even know where to _start_ to answer that. Especially since a lot of it isn't really anything she can answer. "Well, he's a stubborn bastard," she comments after a moment of tense silence. "That probably explains some of it."

"But not all of it," Ardyn snaps, visibly frustrated. "How is it that he knows so much? That he's able to fix _precisely_ what's broken?"

Crowe opens her mouth, reconsiders what she'd been about to say, then figures what the hell. "Time travel," she tells him.

Ardyn just stares at her, expression completely blank. "…I'm sorry, what?"

"Time travel," she repeats, calm and unflustered and entirely serious.

Ardyn's eyes narrow and his lips curve down into a frown. "Utterly preposterous," he declares, seeming almost irritated at her now. "You mock me with such a joke."

"You don't believe me?" she asks, and almost wants to laugh. Because it is laughable, the fact that she's telling Ardyn Izunia the truth and he - an ancient royal who was recently possessed by the Starscourge itself- finds it too absurd to be believable.

"Of course not," Ardyn replies, rolling his eye. "Nyx Ulric, traveling through time? Ridiculous. I should have known better than to expect you to tell me the truth," he goes on, shaking his head. "Very well, keep his secrets, then," he says next, taking a step backwards, coat flaring dramatically despite the fact that there's definitely nothing even approaching a breeze in the hallway. "I shall simply need to continue seeking out the answers on my own, until I stumble upon the truth. Now, if you'll excuse me, Lieutenant Altius, I must be going." He sketches out a courtly bow and then spins on his heel and departs, leaving Crowe alone in the hallway once more.

"Well," she says to the walls, "that did not go at all like I expected but I guess it could have been worse." Actually, all things considered, this outcome was probably one of the better possibilities, weird though it might be.

Shaking her head with a low laugh, she returns to the Kingsglaive command center to check on the status reports of the deployed teams.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope everyone enjoyed that! Mostly I wrote this drabble because the idea popped into my head one day, like: what if Ardyn was sniffing around trying to figure out why Nyx was able to pull off so many impossible world-altering things, and someone told the truth (time travel) and he totally thought they were pulling his leg? Anyway, in my head it was hilarious and I don't know if I did justice to the idea in this drabble but I hope you guys found it at least a little funny. ^_^;


End file.
